Jared Sullinger gets the headlines. Kyrie Irving and his toe dominate the conversation. The trio of Terrance Jones, Brandin Knight and Doron Lamb have fans in Lexington talking Final Four. Somewhere amidst all the freshman chaos Texas's duo of Corey Joseph and Tristan Thompson usually get overlooked.
A notice to the Big Twelve; ignore the Longhorns at your own peril.
No team in the country disapointed more last season than the Texas Longhorns. Ranked #1 in the country just after Christmas, Rick Barnes's club impolded down the stretch, scraping to even make the tournament before bowing out ungracefully in a first round stinker to Wake Forest. Perhaps last season's meltdown was the perfect primer to a successful 2010-2011.
Expectations were significantly lower this year in Austin, a scenario that suited Rick Barnes just fine. With expectations and the pressure dialed well down this season the Longhorns are begininng to blossom into a team to be reckoned with come March.
Granted, Texas suffered the rather inexplicable blowout loss to USC several weeks ago, but every team gets a mulligan over the course of the season. Removing that blemish from the record and you are left with one of the more impressive pre-conference performances in the country. It began with an impressive victory over Illinois in one of the season's best played contests to date. The following night, the true definition of "quality loss" as they fell on a last second bucket to Pitt in front of an electrified Madison Square Garden.
This past week the Longhorns really hit their stride, posting back-to-back road wins at North Carolina and Michigan State. Adding Illinois and looking ahead to a Jan 8th matchup with UConn, Texas will have a real opportunity to build the kind of profile that merits a Top 4 seed come March.
A big reason for Texas's success has been the play of Thompson and Joseph. Averaging just over 11 points each doesn't explode off the page, but their contributions in all facets of the game have been the perfect compliment to the emergence of Jordan Hamilton as a legit National POY candidate.
The Big 12 is loaded this year. Kansas, Kansas State, Baylor and Missouri have shown themselves to all legitimate Final Four contenders. After this week's performances it's time to add Texas to that list.
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